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Unificationist communities around the states step up to the challenges of today with a smile in their hearts. Our subregional directors of the Family Federation for World Peace recently shared their excitement for the future during the Tuesday leader’s call over Zoom. They are inspired and excited to see members of their communities learning new technology to stay connected and to continue with education and outreach efforts online. We hope their updates provide you with hope as we work through our current struggles together. 

Hello, everybody. Congratulations to all the new appointees. That’s awesome. Just wanted to say to everyone, I saw a video the other day, or actually, an image, where there were truckers in a parking lot, and they were all in a big circle, and they were praying, and it just made me realize that we are in a moment where people are really looking for answers They’re they’re seeking God. I don’t think people would be behaving the way they are or thinking the way they are right now if it weren’t for this outbreak. I really believe people are turning inward, and so this is presenting really an incredible opportunity for us.

With everybody figuring out how to do these [online] posts and all these little things, they’re gaining confidence with sharing with people anywhere at any time of the day any kind of content they need to share. They can do the Divine Principle online like this. I find this is a really excellent opportunity for us to take it to the next level. I’m excited about that.  

Also, about the offering table. I have people filling out the offering table who just weren’t making these kinds of reports before. But now they’re stepping up, and I’m really excited about this reaction. I believe, for the first time, we’re getting a real honest assessment of where we are and where we’re going, and that’s very exciting. I just think the team’s working real hard with Rev. Dunkley and Dr. [Ki Hoon] Kim, all of the leadership. David Rendel, thank you so much for all of your efforts and for everybody who I see stepping up now. We got a new face on—Kaeleigh’s—the new host for our Sunday Service, which is really awesome. And Mi Young [Eaton, acting Director of the Education Department], God bless you for what you’re doing. 

I just feel that this is a new time, and we got a lot of opportunities. This is the moment where we really need to grab hold of the future, and I think God is calling us to do just that. Thank you, everybody.

This really is a fantastic opportunity for improvement. All of our communities now have Zoom, they never did before. They’re having all kinds of meetings. This morning two communities had prayer calls with their ACLC pastors, we did it in Chicago again, and we improved from last week. We had 40 people on that call.

On Sunday, we had meetups with most of our communities. Tithe.ly, they’re getting into that. They’re suddenly beginning to come into the new age, in a sense. At the same time, we’re seeing that some of our leaders can’t really make the adjustment, and that’s fine, too. It’s becoming apparent. In some cases, some of our leaders will probably be stepping down to be replaced by younger people that we are trying to raise up.

The offering table is an amazing opportunity for us to begin to talk in the same language. My recent meetings with people have been totally different because we’re establishing a new vocabulary. We’re really building a new culture through this offering table. And mainly I’m really excited about some of the areas like the Hyojeong arts and culture. We’re getting a lot of excitement about that. Young people are seeing that they can get into this kind of overall providential work in many different ways. It’s just a win-win all the way around. It’s incredible how much more efficient we can be. It’s amazing how we can operate at such a reduced cost by just using technology wisely.  

I think at the end of this we’ll find a whole new way to operate at higher efficiencies than we ever had before. I’m grateful.

I think God’s hand is in this thing to get us up to speed and find out that we have all these tools we weren’t using effectively. When the time comes that we can meet together and see each other and hug each other, we’ll not only be able to have good meetings and gatherings, but we’ll be able to do all kinds of things that we didn’t do well before. 

Here at the Pasadena House there are four families shut down together, four missionaries and another second-generation. There are about 18 of us here. The missionaries are meeting their guests everyday by Zoom studying Divine Principle. They have 10 or 15 guests appointments every day, which is more than they had when they were actually on campus. Some of the missionaries who went back to Japan and Korea are joining in on these online study sessions with their guests. It’s really exciting. 

Yesterday we had our first-ever subregion-wide community call with all 22 communities, including our three KEA communities, and this has really opened up a new door for me. We can all be on the screen together. Everyone did a brief introduction. We had people from Hawaii, Alaska, Arizona, Montana, everywhere, on the Zoom call and it was just a really excellent way to connect. From that, a lot of great ideas came up about how we can communicate better in the future. 

We’re keeping heavenly tribal messiah work at the forefront as a goal that we need to accomplish even though all these things are going on. True Mother’s expectation for us to get in the Cheonbo Won doesn’t change. We’re trying to think about how we can navigate these waters and end up in the Cheonbo Won, given the circumstances we have right now. We have an excellent team on that. We’re emphasizing this point always with our communities and with our brothers and sisters.

Thank you. We’re very grateful for Dr. Kim’s guidance and this new opportunity to be together not just as an organization but as a connected family more so than we were in the past. Thank you very much. 

We’re facing a similar situation and are deeply grateful for the precise and consistent guidance from Dr. Kim and from President Dunkley. We’re able to explore and really grow our skills. There are a lot of brothers and sisters who are not so young in community leadership positions as well as state leadership positions. We’ve been making an effort to utilize technology and are off to a slow start, but we’ve had some very good experiences. Last Saturday, several wonderful locals here worked together and created a True Family Values event online. We had six pastors and 25 church members come on. It’s actually very nourishing for everyone to be able to use that and to look toward the future.  

We’re looking forward to this online Divine Principle offering as well that’s coming from the national ministry team. I think that’ll be a great source of daily inspiration as well as long-term guidance for many people and hopefully be at the cutting edge by the time the virus is no longer a significant threat. We’ve got the tools and the capability to continue outreach to much larger communities. We’re looking forward to better development. Thank you. 

Thank you to all our communities for stepping up and facing our current challenge together. We know learning new tech and new ways to communicate are essential right now, and our subregional directors are continually creating new ways to bring all our members, young and old, up to speed. 

If you know of a great way to teach others how to use the latest communication technology, please send us an email at info@unification.org with links, websites, youtube videos, or your video, and we will pass your advice along.

Photo credit FFWPU-USA